British Airways to consider Ljubljana service upgrade
British Airways will consider extending its planned new flights between London Heathrow and Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport once its resumes operations to the Slovenian capital next July following an eighteen-year hiatus. The airport's operator, Fraport Slovenia, noted that the airline will make a final decision based on the route's performance, which is currently scheduled to run twice per week between July 15 and September 2. British Airways is advertising Ljubljana as a leisure destination, and will compete against two other carriers operating year-long flights from three other London airports to the Slovenian capital. Furthermore, the UK carrier will also consider adding extra frequencies between the two cities.
The General Manager of Ljubljana Airport, Zmago Skobir, said, "The return of British Airlines is the consequence of long-term efforts of Ljubljana Airport and Slovenian tourism. The connection with London Heathrow Airport is of great added value, as Heathrow is one of the world's most important hubs, connected to destinations across the world. Furthermore, it is going to have a positive influence on the visibility of Slovenia as a tourist destination on the British market and, at the same time, on the inflow of British tourists to Slovenia". Fraport Slovenia added, "British Airways is a central airline of the One World alliance, that will return to Ljubljana Airport after eighteen years".
British Airways noted, "Ljubljana is very much a hidden gem amongst former Eastern European cities. As a result, tourism in the city is growing rapidly, making it a destination on the radar for many airlines. We are gearing up for an exciting summer next year as we add more routes to our extensive network. We’re always developing our leisure offering and are committed to giving our customers even more choice of destinations at competitively low prices". A total of 239.727 passengers flew between Ljubljana and London last year, with 47% of those opting for easyJet's Stansted service, followed by Wizz Air's Luton flights and easyJet's Gatwick operations.
Mr Skobir recently said the airport is working on attracting more carriers to operate existing routes, in order to offer passengers more choice. "We are investing a lot of efforts in attracting new airlines to destinations already covered by one of the carriers. When Transavia introduced flights to Amsterdam, the existing Adria Airways service did not lose passengers. We attracted a completely different market and the number of travellers on this destination has more than doubled. As a domestic carrier in the Netherlands, Transavia is much more recognisable than Adria, which makes it easier to address this market ", Mr Skobir said. Ljubljana Airport expects to handle a record 1.8 million passengers this year after exceeding 2017s end-of-year result on November 25. "This year's traffic growth will be around 8.5% compared to last year, as we expect another 140.000 passengers by the end of 2018. Therefore, the new record will amount to roughly over 1.8 million passengers, which was also our forecast at the beginning of the year", Fraport Slovenia said.
Flight details for British Airways' new service to Ljubljana can be found here.
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